AoE II HD Compatibility Patch

Introduction

This is a community created compatibility patch for those that have purchased Age2HD from Steam to support the running the game in a mode supporting the original The Conquerors release.

The purpose of the patch is to provide a quick and legal way to purchase the HD version of the game through Steam, and add compatibility with the regular Age of Empires II. This patch does not violate copyright, no files from the original CD are used -- more on this below.

Motivation

Reasons for using this patch include:

The original AoC still has a large and active community,
especially for the Multiplayer version. On Steam for e.g There is
virtually no Custom Scenario community, yet other fan sites have larger
and more active player bases.

When Age2HD on Steam was announced many of us / the community
were excited to finally have a quick and easy way to buy the game again
and still be able to play with existing communities and friends. This
turned out to not be the case. This patch fixes the drawbacks of
isolating communities, and allows us all to now play together as we had
originally hoped for.

It is fair to say that while Age2HD has implemented some
interesting stuff, it most certainly has quality and stability issues
for a number of players. This patch provides a solution to those issues.

Take advantage of the fan patches created for the original version.

Age2HD on steam is a convenient way to purchase the game, while Amazon still sells it not everyone can buy from amazon.

Compatibility Mode Behavior

When playing in compatibility mode, the game will behave exactly as
it did in the original and the enhanced HD version , with community
made patches such as UserPatch.

Some Features will remain the same: HD resolutions will still be
available through the community patches -- please compare the
screenshots below.
Features disabled: the animated water won't be there.
Features added: any feature present as part of userpatch or the
multiplayer client use.

Age2HD in compatibility mode:

Age2HD in steam mode:

How this is Possible and Legalities

Compatibility mode is made possibly by combining either FE files (http://www.forgottenempires.net/install)
or the 1.0c patch from Microsoft for the original game, Age2HD data
files and a few small edits to 1.0c exe. There are no files included
from this patch off the original CDs and because of this doesn't violate
any copyrights.

OK, if it's not illegal wouldn't Microsoft dislike this? We hope not,
as the patch requires a full installation of AoK HD it definitely
doesn’t help piracy, anyone pirating the game can already get full
installations of the game available. Further, we expect this to only
gain more sales for Microsoft as it reduces motivation to pirate the
original game if there is a quick and legal way to get it legally.

The diagram below illustrates how compatibility mode is constructed:

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does this support UserPatch?
A: Yes, the patch supports 1.0c, UserPatch 1.4 and UserPatch 1.5

Q: Does this break Age2HD?
A: No, you can run both out of the same directory!

Q: Why do I have to reset my hotkeys when in compatibility mode?
A: Compatibility mode runs with a different settings file, so this is expected.

Q: How do I contact you?
A: I set up an email address just for this patch! The address is [email protected]

Q: How do I run the game in compatibility mode once installed?
A: Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Age2HD\age2_x1\age2_x1.exe

Q: The game is crashing, what do I do?
A: Try marking the exe as run as administrator and also Windows XP SP3 compatibility.